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                                     FIRE AND ROSES

                                      Version 1.1

                             A scenario for Civilization II

                                   By Stefan Hrtel

                               Stefan.Haertel@t-online.de

                          http://www.alexanderthegreat.de/civ2

                      


                                      CONTENTS

                                   Changes From Version 1.1
                                   Installation
                                   Historical Background
                                   Designer's Notes
                                   The Players
                                   Rules And Victory Conditions
                                   Units
                                   Advances, WoW's And City Improvements
                                   Other
                                   Credits
                                   Bibliography
                                   Feedback


I. CHANGES FROM VERSION 1.0

I have changed a couple of things from the release version.

* Some new or altered units graphics
* Barbarian city, village, camp and fortress units now appear in the scenario (whoops)
* Some new fancy graphics in icons.gif
* Events bug fixed; some civs could previously not go to war with each other.

II. INSTALLATION

I can only guarantee you that this scenario will work with
Fantastic Worlds. I cannot guarantee you that it works with MGE/UCC. It will not work with CiC or lower versions. 
Create a folder under the Scenario directory, call it "Roses" or whatever, and move all the unzipped files in.
Other versions of Civ2 use other file destinations. If you have the French or German version of Civ2, you must rename all the .txt files into .Fre and .Ger to play this scenario properly.

III. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

During the early middle ages, Iran was subject of little regard to the great arab empire, as in earlier ages, when the center of empire lay in today's Iraq.
The arab Caliphs passed the executive power to certain Emirs, who were to govern their land in own measure. Several of these Emirs became largely independent, as the Caliph of the Abassids was more concerned with closer and more urgent matters, for example a revolt of slaves in southern Iraq in the 9th century that evolved into a large-scale war, lasting a decade.
During this time, an Emir residing in Samarqand, rose to power. He founded the so-called dynasty of the Samanids. Not here, that Emirs were at first nothing but 'governeurs' of more aristocratic sort. But their passing to power was often dynastic, so that the Emirates de facto mostly turned into independent empires. In 909 they annected the emirate of the Saffarids.
This is where the scenario starts.
The Samanids kept the sovereignity over Persia for most of the following century, but, more importantly, they kept alight the flame of persian culture. During the same period, a new and coming power from southern Iran (Fars) emerged, the Bujids. In 945, they took Baghdad, de facto terminating all of the Abassid power. Nominally, they were just sovereigns in the name of the Caliph.
After 976, a new vassal of the Samanids emerged in what is today Afghanistan. They were named Ghaznavids, after their capital of Ghazna (today's Ghasni, between Kandahar and Kabul). Little of the splendor of the city remains, only the tomb of Mahmud, the most important of the Ghaznavid kings, several towers and smaller monuments.
The Ghaznavids took the title of Sultan, for they were of Turkish, not Arab or Iranian origin. Their first Sultan was Subuktigin (976-997), who launched several campaigns into India. He was succeeded by Mahmud (998-1030). Mahmud destroyed the Samanid emirate and other regional powers, establishing an empire that stretched from Delhi almost to modern-day Iraq. He is considered one of the most important conquerors of early islamic history.
His successors were of little luck. After their defeat at the battle of Dandanqan in 1040, they had to pass over their power to the Seldjuks, another turkish tribe emerging from central Asia. The Ghaznavids were reduced to modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of India, always being in clinch with the regional power of the Ghurids, who eventually drove the Ghaznavids out of their homelands, and terminating all their power after taking their later capital of Lahore (1186): This is where the scenario ends.

IV. DESIGNER'S NOTES

Making this scenario was quite a bit of a challenge, as my sources lacked the overwhelming comprehency like those about antiquity. I browsed not few books to find but mere dissapointment, particularly in the areas I originally wanted to depict in detail (Fars and Kerman). Not even the internet could provide me with more information on the 'history of Shiraz' than about an extremely sour (IMHO) red wine. I was forced to extend the scale of the scenario both geographically and historically. An originally planned historical scenario about a struggle between the southern kingdoms of Iran was now replaced by a semi-historical empire building game about Arabs, Persians and Turks.

V. THE PLAYERS

All seven civilizations appear in the scenario, and all are meant to be played. As a matter of fact, all of these should be played, if possible, as this scenario was layed out for a mulitplayer game, and some of the events might even not work properly to full extent if played in a single-player game. Nonetheless, it will make a just fine single-player game, I think.
The Ghaznavids start out quite powerful, and surrounded by nice cities to conquer. On the contrary, however, they are small and lack vital ressources. This way, early expansion is recommended.
The Abbasids are large and advanced, however far-off the major events of this scenario, relatively powerless and constantly threatened. Most of the objectives are difficult to reach.
The Turks are tiny, backwards, and isolated, at least to a certain moment of time. This however gives them a calm while to build up their forces and gather strenghts.
The Samanids have a similar deal as the Abbasids. They are large and highly advanced. They face a somewhat more difficult situation, however. Their cities are far apart, and thus the empire is tougher to keep together. They foot on weak units, and a corrupt and flawful government (Republic). Further, they will find themselves under permanent pressure from outside: Ghaznavids, Barbarians, and later, Turks and possibly Ghurids.
The Bujids have a small but well-structured empire, quality ressources, and hold some valuable roads, connected to interesting military objectives. On the other hand, they have an excellent defensive position against foreign intruders.
The Ghurids are the most backward civ of all. They possess two small fortresses in the mountains, however both in capital position. Their ressources are very limited, so they should get a hand on some of those barbarian cities south of them before the Ghaznavids can. Further, they, as the only civ in this game, can't negotiate with others. This way, they aren't fit for competing for a victory by military objectives in a single-player game, so they should rather be avoided. The Hindu States are not historical, but could make for an interesting game, given the fact that they have a well-developed economy and powerful units, but are pretty much isolated from the rest of the map. 


VI. RULES AND VICTORY CONDITIONS

This scenario is an all-out of war, meaning a victory can only be reached by conquest. However, this can only be achieved by clever administration, exploration, trade and science. The Ghaznavids are set as protagonists, but this is only to make them more aggressive. Keeping them from achieving a total victory in a single-player game is too easy, so you should try and do all the conquering stuff yourself. There are 46 objectives in all, wonders don't count as such. Scoring works as follows:

                           41 or more objectives is a decisive victory
                           35 or more objectives is a marginal victory
                           18 or more objectives is a marginal defeat
                            2 or less objectives is a decisive defeat

Keep an eye on barbarian activities. They are nasty and dangerous.

Which ever civ you choose to play, you will find that trade is a very beneficial factor. Since the map is very big, the cities are spread far apart, and even slight trade with your neighbour civ can be very lucrative. In any case, those players situated in eastern Iran and Afghanistan (Turks, Samanids, Ghaznavids and Ghurids) should try to establish trade routes with the far-away Abbasids, while those in the west of the map (Abbasids and Bujids) should try to make India a trade partner. Since these two players have access to the sea, and piracy is not as much a threat as I would have liked it to be, they will propably become rich and powerful soon. The Samanids are situated pretty much in the center of the map, so both directions are interesting for trade. If they choose to trade with the Abbasids, however, they will have to be VERY careful not to run into hostile bandits. This counts for every landlocked civ; that's why I recommend you to keep your caravans escorted, and to explore your trade routes well. Also, be sure to know where your goal city is, or else you'll have your caravan running around seeking for a market, wasting precious turns.

Most of your units aren't able to conquer those heavily fortified cities. Using siege weapons is in your interest. Those other units aren't useless though. For your protection, always have a couple of cavalry units patrolling through your empire. Enemy units can pop up out of nowhere. Also, be sure, if one of your cities is near mountain terrain, to have it guarded well. Well-defended siege weapons on a mountain (or even hill!) square is your doom. The other way around, however, make this idea part of your strategy as well.

Contain foreign expansion if you can. Most civs are very expansionist in this scenario.

VII. UNITS

I will spare you a complete rundown of units available in this scenario, as they appear perfectly in the pedia. 
Most of the units you start with won't be very good, though good enough for some early conquest. You will upgrade
your army by technological research. Unit roles should be quite obvious to understand. 
There are two hero units, one for the Ghaznavids and one for the Turks. Further, most civilizations have unique, or
at least semi-unique units. Turks can be built by the Ghaznavids and the Turks, Persians can be built by the Bujids
and the Samanids. 
Naval units play a small role here. They are most interesting for the Abbasids and the Bujids, as they start out with
port cities. The intent has been to encourage oversea trade with the Hindu States, who own some very rich (and very
demanding!) cities along the coast and inland. Naval trade is a lot faster than continental trade anyway. But there are
a lot of pirates in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, so an escorting navy would be practical. Building some port
cities for faster developement should also be in your interest.

VIII. ADVANCES, WOW'S AND CITY IMPROVEMENTS

There is an extended tech tree in this game. Details can be obtained by consulting the Civilopedia.
However, I will explain the most important advances here.
There is a big number advances in every direction, military, economic, scientific, social (hereby mostly religious),
and applied. Most advances give you the ability to construct new units or city improvements, some however provided
you with nothing but the basis for new technologies. Others appear to do virtually nothing (for example City Patrols, 
Qanats or Silk Trade). These don't have to be researched, but they provide you with some interesting game options.
City Patrols eliminates the threat of slave revolts, Qanats allow you to double-irrigate your land, and Silk Trade allows Silk to appear as a trade item (which will eventually become a very valuable one as well). These are techs that should be stolen though, as they aren't quite worth the science investment on the one hand, but also quite important to have on the other.
The tech paradigm is normal (10/10), as science would otherwise move along so slowly that certain players wouldn't discover any of the advanced techs in this game. That would be a shame.
You will receive techs after certain city conquest. These make specific wonders in these cities go obsolete.
Some advances have special effects on the civilizations that discover them. Assasins will draw about war between the discoverer and the Abbasids, as the Caliph doesen't want such dangerous sects to be spread. Further, some civs will get a bit of a 'development help' after they discover certain advances.
Government switching is allowed and encouraged, but only for those who have a backward development (Despotism or Monarchy).

City improvements can easily be looked up in the Civilopedia. However, I warn you about Labor Systems, these are Nuclear Plants in disguise.
The same about WoW's. Not all are in the game, they don't count as objectives, and some are yet to be built. All are easy to look up in the pedia.

IX. OTHER

The title.gif shows the inner of the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazna.
Note a number of cities, villages, camps and fortresses. They might help you with your money troubles. Note, however, that each is differently defended-just think, that a large city will defend itself a lot more fiercly than a small nomad camp.
The fortresses are more annoying, as they cover some vital routes, they are strong in defense, AND occupy more difficult terrain. They are also not as much of 'economical' interest as, for examples, cities are. You may also want to pillage some caravans underway.
A small note: While designing the city styles, I happily mixed different architectural epochs and styles together. The 'Persian' style is actually a mix of Samanid, Seldjuk, and by part even Mongol (Ilkhanat) styles; but the result is very satisfying, as fact is that it is practically impossible of drawing one single style from one single epoch in this area. Most of the architecture of the time this scenario takes place in is destroyed or in terrible condition (take Ghazna, for example). The 'Mountain fortress' style is even based on a picture of a Yemenite town (without minaretts)! The Abassid style is at least very questionable, and in some parts even completely imagined; you wouldn't have found the (shiite) golden domes until deep into the 12th or 13th century, and when you're looking for buildings like the fortress graphic (the buildable one, not the unit) you'd have to go to Jordan. The suburbs have Persian and Arab elements mixed happily together.
I write all this for those who are interested in such stuff. Seriously, I doubt that the vast majority of players actually cares for these inaccuracies. I wouldn't either; picking on such details as a player is show-off, annoying, and it ruins the fun of the game. As whole, the city styles look as if they fit together, and I think they look OK for the game. It was also a lot of fun drawing them.
I also think that many of the technologies and units are questionable to say the very least; much has been done to fit gaps. A couple of advances are historically out of place as they were already discovered at the begin, or just shortly after the end of the scenario. I put a lot of research into these things, and while being successful in finding contenting information on certain aspects as the Ghaznavid army or certain technologies, other things are still completely in the dark for me. But to see it this way, getting to such a level in research in which you despair at details already is successful in certain aspects. I consider the result in historical accuracy satisfying; I must also note here that I lacked detailed sources.

X. CREDITS

First of all, special thanks to Jorrit Vermeiren, who made this beautiful map. If he hadn't made it, I propably wouldn't have finished this scenario. Thanks to Bernd Brosing, Morten Blaabjerg, Allard Hfelt, Jess Balsinde and Harlan Thompson for a great deal of unit and advance/wow icons used in this scenario (listing all of these would extend this readme too much; they come mostly from the scenarios "Cross & Crescent" by Bernd Brosing and "Mongols" by Harlan Thompson. The "camp" icon is from Morten Blaabjergs Africa modpack, the "slave revolt" unit is, I think, from Allard Hfelt's "Boer War" scenario, I adjusted it slightly.) ; thanks also to HT for his icon and unit compilations, which I once again plundered greatly for many of these icons; all others (with my signature "SH" on it) have been made by myself. Some of the city icons have been made or modified by myself. All the scanned (and thus of rather poor quality) WoW icons have been made by myself. I can say with some pride that all the city icons have been made from the scratch by myself, and all but the Hindu one have been made exclusively for this scenario. You may use any of these graphics in your work, provided credit is given, just as I did here. And please don't erase my signature. 
Some of the smaller icons from the icons.gif file have also been made by Bernd Brosing; others, including the background of the pop-up boxes (though recolourized by myself) were made by Masis Panos. The people graphics were taken from Jess Balsinde's "Al-Andalus" scenario. I still don't know who did that magnificent terrain collection. The mountains were made, AFAIK by Harlan Thompson. 
Special thanks goes to my playtesters, who gave me a good deal of comments and suggestions. They were, in alphabetical order, Case, Hobbes and John Valdez.
Thanks also to all those brave players who agreed to play this scenario in a PBEM (play-by-email) game.

XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

-Carl Brockelmann, "Geschichte der islamischen Vlker und Staaten", Munich/Berlin 1943
-"Islam. Kunst und Architektur", published by Markus Hattstein and Peter Delius, 2000 Knemann Verlag, Cologne.

XII. FEEDBACK

For questions, comments notes or anything else, you can write me an eMail
to Stefan.Haertel@t-online.de
You can also write something to one of Apolyton's forums, preferably the SLeague forum. Please visit my homepage at http://www.alexanderthegreat.de/civ2/
Please don't write to tell me that your version of Civ2 doesen't load this scenario.
I'm not going to answer these mails. Your game doesen't support the version this scenario was made in (FW; 2.72). You can download a patch to update your game at http://www.civfanatics.com
Here you can get the latest versions of all my other scenarios, as well as my other creations for Civ2.